The Elliot/Hindle Story

This article is taken from the writings of Cyril Tweed regarding his Elliott & Hindle relatives, 1985.

From Kent to Creekmouth

The Elliott / Hindle story began in 1800 when Henry Thomas Elliott moved from Kent with his Suffolk-born wife, Alice, to No.39 Creekmouth Cottages.

Henry, known as Harry, and Alice raised 15 children in their little, 2 bedroom cottage. Alice, so legend has it, never really liked children and the siblings more or less brought each other up. Harry worked at Lawes Fertiliser Factory, just along the footpath.

Cyril Tweed describes his female ancestors as having a ‘waspish, effervescent’ appearance, hiding the nasty ‘sting’ that always lay just below the surface. Harry’s sons however, were ‘portly, Pickwickian, kindly and gentle, just like their father’. On their marriage it seems that Harry severed all ties with his own family but maintained very strong links with the Hindles, who, by all accounts, were shoemakers to Queen Victoria.

According to Cyril, Alice always wore dark clothes and her skin took on a dull, yellowish tinge in the harsh light from the gas lamp. In his later years Harry worked as a night watchman at the newly built Barking Power Station. Cyril would deliver his lunch to him: sandwiches in a knotted, spotty cloth. In wintertime he would sit by his glowing brazier, sited just outside his ‘Watchman’s hut’, rubbing his chilled hands together, in the warmth from the fire.

The Children

Harry and Alice’s eldest son, Will, was killed in the Great war, at Dardanelles and his two young daughters were taken in by the Elliott family, although it is not known what became of his wife. The eldest Elliott daughter, Ethel Jessie, married Ernest Tweed and had one son, Cyril, whose family history this article has been taken from. Daughter Ivy ‘Alice’ Victoria Elliott married her cousin, William Hindle, thus cementing the Elliott-Hindle families forever.

Some of the children, whilst given ‘ordinary’ first names, had rather romantic middle names, attributed to Alice’s love of reading romantic novels. Joseph’s middle name was Arklie, Holly’s was Clarabelle, Irene had quite a mouthful of middle names – Mizpah, Undin Myrtle. The Elliott’s next-door-neighbours, the Mathieson’s, had a son with the first name Arklie, 3 years younger than Joseph Arklie Elliott. It is surmised that the Mathieson’s took a shine to Joe’s middle name and chose it for their own, newborn son.

The Twilight Years

It was in their twilight years that Harry and Alice moved from the village to Owen Terrace, now called Movers Lane, about a mile away and nearer to the town centre. Here, Harry installed electric lighting; a real luxury in those early days. They whiled away their days, sitting in front of a roaring fire with Jenny, the dog and Woodles, the parrot.

Alice passed away in 1935, age 64. Henry passed away two years later in March 1937 aged 74.

Auntie Hindle – Ivy Alice Hindle (nee Elliott).

The 1891 census shows that their daughter Ivy, known as Alice, lived with her husband/cousin William Hindle, at No.6 Creekmouth Cottages. By the 1901 census, Alice (Ivy), is widowed. ‘Aunty Hindle’, as she was known, had no children but kept many cats. She died around 1950.